Ron Kaese serves as a DefTech Advisor under TEDCO’s Federal Programs department. The joint initiative between TEDCO, the Maryland Department of Commerce, and the Department of Defense was created to support businesses by leveraging cutting-edge technology, facilities, equipment, and expertise found in Federal Labs.
Additionally, in this role, Ron is focused on opening actionable steps to facilitate collaborations between businesses and federal laboratories, identifying companies who may benefit from such an arrangement, and working with said companies on federal tech transfer agreements.
Before taking the mantel to identify and connect businesses with any of the 350+ federal laboratories through the DefTech program, Ron accumulated more than 28 years in tech transfer and economic development focused on Federal Lab collaborations with high tech small businesses. During this time, Ron served TEDCO as a member of the Federal Programs team, where he established and managed multiple programs that support(ed) the creation, mentorship and growth of Federal technology startups across the state, including the SBIR/STTR Proposal Lab.
Prior to TEDCO, he retired from federal civil service, and he worked at the Maryland Department of Commerce level (i.e. DBED) and led a Federal Lab Tech Commercialization Office.
His educational background includes University of Maryland BSEE, Texas A&M Master of Engineering (Systems Engineering), University of Maryland Global Campus Master of Science (Technology Management) and MBA.
After work, Ron is an avid ballroom dancer and is eager to start SCUBA diving again.